• SmoothOperator@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Some cultures are just worse than others.

    Hmm, do you think “good cultures” should interfere with “bad cultures” and stop them from their barbaric practices, teaching them the enlightened ways of the good cultures?

    • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      Yes. Fuck the prime directive, it’s monstrous and evil, and a way for non-interventionists to feel proud of themselves while washing their hands off problems they could easily solve, sanctimonious bastards that they are.

      • SmoothOperator@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Fair - how much does this idea overlap with colonialism in your mind? Usually we refer to colonialism as intervention for the sake of extraction, but it was/is often motivated through intervention for the sake of morals.

        • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 days ago

          Colonialism isn’t motivated by morals, colonialism is stealing other people’s land for its resources (most of the time; and sometimes the people were the resources being stolen) or strategic importance, or because it’s there, or because everyone else was doing it and not having colonies looked weak, or because it was a nigh uninhabitable far away place were you could dump any undesirables you wanted to forget about.

          Morals were merely an excuse or justification, never the real reason.

          More often than not colonialism didn’t even consider the native cultures (or the natives themselves, except possibly as a nuisance or, unless they were the resource being stolen, and then they weren’t considered as a culture or people, they were considered as product), they were irrelevant. Maybe some missionaries tried to teach them religion, so they could go to hell for their sins, and very occasionally some scholar categorised and described the cultural artifacts being stolen or destroyed, but that was never the driving force.

          When I say fuck the prime directive I’m not talking about colonialism. I’m not talking about destroying cultures, or stealing their lands. The Faroese wouldn’t be any less Faroese if they couldn’t torture whales. They’d still have the rest of their culture, their language, their history, and, unlike with colonialism, their land and their lives. The “harm” to them would be minimal, and the world a less cruel and monstrous place.

          • SmoothOperator@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Thanks for the elaboration.

            What might be a practical way to do it? The Faroese currently have a colonial overlord, Denmark, should they send police or armed forces to stop the slaughter by force? Or should the international community try with sanctions first?

            Should we also intervene in e.g. cruel factory farming in other countries like the U.K. or France? Or at least stop the torturing of geese to make foie gras?

    • werty@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Not if the bad cultures are indigenous and have been doing it for long enough. Nothing wrong with hunting endangered species if your culture is endangered.

      • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 days ago

        The primary species being hunted, pilot whales, according to the IUCN is least concern (the lowest rating) and they consider the hunts sustainable: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/9250/50356171 The dolphin species aren’t endangered, either.

        If you object to this on the basis that they’re intelligent that’s fine, but I also hope you don’t eat pork, since pigs are also highly intelligent (and for factory farmed, they lived and died in far worse conditions).